


Say It Will Be Alright

by wingedblue



Series: Traveling Soldier [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Fluff, Girls Kissing, Military
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-20 07:43:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2420642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingedblue/pseuds/wingedblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>And I shall believe...</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Kira's lived in this tiny town all her life, working in Yuki's Diner since she could write down orders and carry a tray. Soldiers from the army camp down south come through all the time, but she's never met one quite like Malia Hale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say It Will Be Alright

It’s a very near miss that Kira doesn’t drop her tray full of drinks all over Mr. and Mrs. Wells. “Lydia?” she calls over her shoulder, drawing out the ‘a.’ “Can you mop right here? I almost slipped!” Lydia tells her that she’ll take care of it, and she starts weaving through the tightly packed tables to the booths near the front. Men (and a few women) in camouflage uniforms, talking and laughing happily, occupy four of them. She stops in front of the first one and starts offloading her drinks: “Three coffees, two iced teas, a lemonade, and a hot chocolate, there you go. You all ready to order?” She smiles brightly, empty tray tucked under her arm and pen poised over a pad of paper. She studiously takes all their lunch orders and takes them all back to the kitchen. “Hiya Dad, got a lot more coming!” she calls back to her father. On her way back out to take the next table’s orders, she stops to help load the tray Lydia sets out.

“Any handsome ones this year?” Lydia says, nudging her as she arranges the tall glasses and hot mugs on the beat up black tray.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Kira giggles nervously. “That one over at table six is pretty cute.”

“Mm, I do like me a man in uniform!” Lydia says suggestively, starting on the next round of drinks.

“They’re so honorable,” Kira says earnestly.

“Yeah.” Lydia’s face falls for a moment. Quickly, she picks herself back up. “Better hurry, they’re lookin’ hungry!” Kira hoists the tray up over her shoulder and delivers it to the next table.

By the time all the soldiers are finished eating, the lunch rush is over and Kira is downright exhausted from carrying so many dishes: Erica was down with the flu, so Kira and Braeden had covered her section for her. She sits behind the counter with her chin in her hands, staring at the cars go by outside. The late-fall sun is just starting to dip, falling towards the horizon. The clock on the wall says it’s just before four, an hour before Isaac comes in and takes over for her.

The bell on the door jolted her out of her daydreaming. It’s another soldier, a woman. Kira sits up straighter when she gets a good look at her. Tall and lean, and curvy, with wavy light brown hair chopped off harshly at her jawline, sparkling brown eyes, and smooth tan skin. She looks like a model, or a princess, or an angel. Kira tries to make herself look busy when the gorgeous soldier sits gingerly at the counter.

“Hi, welcome to Yuki’s, what can I get ya?” she asks, pushing a stray hair out of her eyes. 

“Coffee, please.” She looks tired, but smiles at Kira anyway.

“Sure. Anything else?”

“Uh. Not really.” Kira cocks her head in confusion. “I, uh. I could use a little company, to be honest,” the soldier says, toying with the sleeve of her uniform.

“Well… I’m not particularly busy right now,” Kira says shyly, putting her hands in her pockets.

“No, I don’t wanna keep you if you’re working,” she says.

“Really, it’s no trouble. Let me just get you that coffee.” She hurries to the coffee maker and pours a steaming mug, then plops it down in front of the soldier.

“Thanks…” she peers at Kira’s nametag. “Kira.” Kira likes the way her name rolls off the beautiful girl’s tongue.

“Don’t worry about it, uh…” She trails off, looking at the girl expectantly.

“Malia. Malia Hale.”

“Nice to meet you, Malia Hale.” She laughs, and it sounds like little golden pearls of music.

“Please, just Malia. I’ve heard nothing but Hale, Hale, Hale all day for months. I’d like a little normality.”

“Ok, just Malia,” Kira teases. Malia rolls her eyes and laughs again, then sips her coffee.

“Mm. Good coffee. What is this?”

“Uh, its… hold on, I’ll show you the bag.” Kira goes in the back and digs through the cabinet for the coffee beans. “Here.” She passes Malia the half full bag to examine.

“Ah. I like it.” Malia sets it back down and takes another sip. “So, Kira, are you from around here?”

“Born and raised,” she replied, leaning against the counter. “My grandparents opened this diner when they moved here from down south. ‘Yuki’s’ is an abbreviation of our last name, Yukimura,” Kira explains animatedly. “Not much happens in this little town, but the diner sure gets plenty of interesting people comin’ through.”

“I bet. I heard good things about the food from the others,” Malia says, eyes roaming over Kira’s face.

“My dad’s the cook right now—” she breaks off as the bells on the door jingle and a family of five comes in. She winces. “Sorry, I have to take care of that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Malia says, smile dimming a bit. “It was nice talking to you.”

“Yeah, you too.” She starts to gather up her apron, but pauses. “Hey, uh. I get off in an hour. There’s a sweet little place we can go and hang out, if you want. I mean, you don’t have to, you probably would rather go be with—”

“I’d love to.” Malia’s grin is near blinding, and it makes Kira just a little bit dizzy.

The hour seems to take forever, but finally Isaac's familiar face appears and Kira practically throws her apron off. “Bye, Dad!” She brushes a few crumbs off her shirt and hurries over to Malia. “C’mon, lets go!” She catches Malia by the hand and half-pulls her out of the diner.

“Where’s this special spot?” Malia asks as she sits in the passenger seat of Kira’s little car.

“It’s not far, only about ten minutes drive. Do you want to turn on some music?” Malia smiles and nods, and begins fiddling with the knobs on the radio until she finds something on a slightly static-y station. Its got a man’s soft voice over an acoustic guitar, and Kira sees Malia relax into the worn seat as the chords set her at ease.

“I didn’t have you pegged for the folky music type,” Kira says after a few minutes.

“Huh?” Malia looks confused for a second, then remembers where she is. “Oh. Yeah, it… I guess it calms me down. Reminds me of the good things in life.”

“Mm. It’s really pretty.”

“Yeah. But—” she laughs for a moment. “If I’m not the folky type, what’d you think I was?”

“I don’t know,” Kira says, blushing a little. “I just assumed…”

“Assumed what?”

“I dunno. You’re pretty badass, I guessed you were into like, rock music or something.” This elicited another peal of laughter from Malia.

“I’m badass?” she giggled.

“I mean, yeah. You can certainly rock a uniform,” Kira says shyly, glancing at the golden-hued girl out of the corner of her eye.

“Why thank you, but my aunt and cousins are the real badasses. I’m not even close to their level, figuratively and literally.”

“Literally?”

“They rank way above me, and my auntie Talia was up in the very, very high ups. I’m just a grunt.”

“Oh. Military family, then?”

“Oh yeah. If your name’s Hale, then you’re straight into the force, soon as you’re done with high school.”

“So you’re only eighteen or nineteen then.” Kira pulled into a parking spot and turned the car off.

“Twenty-one actually. I spent a few years in… well, I started high school a few years late.”

“Did you like it? High school, I mean. I hate my school, I just wanna get out and see the world.” Malia narrowed her eyes a little bit.

“How old are you?”

“Almost eighteen. Two days till my birthday, actually. We’re on fall break right now.”

“Oh, happy early birthday,” Malia says, with a grin. She gave Kira’s forearm a light squeeze that made her heart flutter. “And I hated it. High school. Well, not all of it. I had some good friends, and English class was fun. I despised math.” Kira laughed.

“I definitely agree with you there. Hey, do you wanna get out? There’s a little spot on the end of the dock that’s real nice, you can dip your feet in and there’re a few ducks.”

“Sure.” They get out of the car and walk across the little dirt road to the little dock in the lake. Luckily for them, there was nobody there already. Kira produces a crumpled bag from her hoodie’s oversized pocket and reaches inside.

“Here. It’s for the the ducks.” Malia looks over and takes the end of stale bread from Kira’s hand. She rips a little piece off and tosses it a few feet in front of her. A lone duck sees it and glides over, nipping it up out of the water. Soon, a few ducks are crowding around the dock, wrestling and splashing for the breadcrumbs. When they run out, they disperse again. Malia watches them leave with a new light in her eyes.

“Aren’t they sweet?” she says. “I’ve always loved animals.”

“Me too. I’ve always wanted a dog, or something. Do you have any? Or… did you?” Kira slips her suede flats off and sits down, toes dipping in the water.

“We did, actually: a German Sheppard.” She shifts her weight to the other foot and crosses her arms. “He died last year, but he had a good long life. Thirteen years. I, uh…” She runs a hand through her hair. “Actually, the reason I missed a few years of school was because I got in a car crash. I wasn’t injured to badly, scrapes and bruises, but my sister and my mother both… anyway, I was pretty messed up. I was in an institution for three years, recovering from the trauma and learning to act human again. But they had me in wilderness therapy for the last two, and I spent a lot of time around the animals they had there.” Kira looks up at her, eyes wide.

“Wow. What was that like?” She slaps a hand over her mouth and blushes, looking down at her feet. “I’m sorry, that was so nosy and intrusive, you don’t have to answer that.” Malia laughs quietly.

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” She crouches down next to her and begins untying her boots. “It was nice, once I got over the trauma itself. Easy. I barely talked to anyone, though. I was kind of a bitch,” she says ruefully. “They said my brain had somehow shut off for the first few months, like a defense mechanism, even though there was no physical damage. I just remember thinking humans were dumb as hell.” She sits down and pulls her shoes and socks off, setting them behind her and dipping her feet in next to Kira.

“They are,” Kira says. “As soon as I’m out of high school, I’m gonna go live in the jungle and eat squirrels to survive.” Malia snorts.

“I don’t think squirrels live in the jungle.”

“They don’t?” Kira’s eyebrows furrow in confusion.

“I think they only live in the forest.”

“Oh yeah. I think you’re right. Woodland creatures, and all. Maybe I should just go live with the apes, eat bugs. Eugh.”

“C’mon, you’re too elegant-lookin' to be an ape. Maybe a fox, or a cat, or something.” Malia reaches over and brushes a flyaway hair off Kira’s face.

“Oh, shush. When you work with the likes of Braeden and Lydia, you’re never 'elegant' or 'beautiful,'" she scoffs, making air quotes around her words. "I’m the cute one,” she says self-consciously. She swings her feet back and forth, splashing Malia’s ankles. Malia giggles and splashes back.

“Hmm. You’re definitely cute, that’s for sure. Like, you’ve-got-a-bow-in-your-hair-and-its-adorable-cute,” She said, grinning at Kira in the orangey sunset light. “But also like I’d-totally-take-you-to-prom-and-get-a-hotel-room-later-cute.” Kira gasps and giggles behind her hand.

“Malia!”

“Uh, oh my god I'm sor--was I misreading the situation?” Malia says, flustered.

“No, not at all!” Kira says hurriedly. “I’d totally take you to prom, too.”

“It’s a date,” she says, relaxing again. She nudges Kira’s shoulder playfully.

“That would be amazing,” Kira says wistfully. “All the other girls… well, y’know. They’re all loopy over the football team.”

“Let me guess, you just go for the cheerleaders?”

“Got it in one.”

“Well, I might pass through town again in May, and if I do, I’ll take you to prom,” Malia says firmly. “Scout’s honor. Do you want me in a suit or a dress?”

“I like you in your uniform, but I bet you look amazing in a dress. Something pretty and chiffon-y, maybe purple.”

“Mhm, cause I know you love purple.” She flicks the plum-purple ribbon tying Kira’s hair back from her face.

“I love all colors!”

“Do you like to draw, or something?”

“Drawing? No. I like to paint, though. I’m not very good,” she says shyly.

“I’m sure you’re great. I tried to paint once. It ended up as my best friend and I smearing paint across each other’s faces for an hour.”

“I bet that was fun. What’s your friend like?”

“He, uh.” Her face turns dark. “His name’s Stiles.” Kira frowns, sensing Malia’s distress.

“What is it?”

“He’s in the hospital right now. Has been for almost a year now. I haven’t been able to see him very much.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Kira says softly, rubbing Malia’s back. “What happen—sorry. I’m being nosy again.”

“No, no, no, its fine. They thought it was this awful disease his mother had at first, but it wasn’t. They don’t really know what’s wrong. But he’s managing; I get to talk to him on the phone occasionally. Mostly I talk to his boyfriend, Scott.”

“Well that’s something,” Kira says encouragingly.

“Yeah, of course. He says they’ve been trying some new treatments and it seems like they’re helping,” she says, smile returning. “It was so cute, my cousin had the biggest crush on him for years.”

“Aw, that’s sweet. I wish I had family who lived around here, but it’s just me and my mom and dad.”

“I’d say I wish I’d lived with only my mom and dad, but my mom and sister… and my dad’s crazy, he’s sort of the bad egg in the family. I spent most of my time with my cousins. Derek and Laura are older, and Cora’s my age so we had a lot of fun. Derek’s actually in our group, he’s the one who told me how good the food at the diner was.”

“Oh! What did he look like? I probably served him.”

“Uh, big, tall, buff. Brown hair, green eyes, stubble, kinda looks permanently grumpy,” she explains, gesturing with her hands.

“Oh! I think he might have been the handsome one I pointed out to Lydia,” she laughs.

“Huh. That’s hilar—” Without thinking, Kira leans forward and cuts Malia off, pressing their lips together. Malia freezes for a second, but when she realizes what ‘s happening, she places her calloused hand on the back of Kira's soft neck and pulls her closer. Kira’s hand comes to rest on Malia’s chest, right over the sliver of skin showing through the uniform.

They break apart eventually, breathless, foreheads resting together. “That… was that your first kiss?” Malia whispers, breath puffing softly across Kira’s cheek.

“If you don’t count middle school truth or dare,” she whispers back.

“I, uh… I’m so sorry.” She pulls back, hand flying to her forehead. “I’m sorry. You’re underage. I, uh. I should just—”

“Malia.”

“Gosh, oh my—”

“Malia.”

“Jesus Christ, I’ll just le—” Kira puts a finger to Malia's mouth, suppressing laughter.

“Shh.” Malia stares at her silently, looking miserable. “First of all, I kissed you, not the other way around. Second of all… that was pretty much the best first kiss I could’ve asked for. A little cliché, sure,” she laughs. “I mean, on the docks at sunset. Straight out of a romance novel.”

“But—it was ok?” Malia stutters.

“Yes, Malia,” Kira says exasperatedly, giving her a little shove.

“Do you—do you wanna do it again?” Malia murmurs timidly. Kira rolls her eyes and leans in, tangling her hand in Malia’s soft hair.

When they part again, the sky is nearing darkness. “Crap!” Kira says, jumping up. “Oh crap, I need to get home!”

“Great. Ok.” Malia shakes the water off her feet and tugs her shoes and socks back on.

“Do you need a ride?” Kira asks, already rushing back to her car.

“Yeah, that would be great. To the diner is fine, were only a little way past that.”

“Ok.” Kira starts the car and pulls away quickly.

“Hey, so,” Malia clears her throat. “I’m gonna be gone, and I’d like someone to talk to other than my whacko family. Would you, uh, would you mind if I called you sometimes? I get a little homesick on tours.”

“Are you kidding? Of course,” Kira says. “Do you want me to write down the house phone for you?”

“Yeah. That’d be great.” When they park in front of Yuki’s, Kira finds a sharpie in the glove compartment and carefully writes the number on Malia’s forearm.

“There. Don’t forget about me, ok? You’re my prom date,” she teases.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Malia promises, tucking the flyaway hair out of Kira’s face again. “I’ll call you. Promise.”

“Alright.” Kira leans in to grab one last, lingering kiss.

“Goodbye, Kira,” Malia says when she pulls away.

“Stay safe, ok? Be careful.”

“I will, don’t you worry about me.” Malia presses a kiss to her forehead, then opens the door and climbs out of the car.

Kira watches as she hurries down the sidewalk and around the corner. It takes her a minute to gather up enough will to start the car and drive home.

She pulls into the driveway and stops clumsily, vision blurring. She rests her forehead on the steering wheel and lets a few tears drip down her face. She makes herself take a few ragged breaths. “Jesus Christ, Kira. You’ve known this girl for a few hours. Calm down.” She manages to pull herself together enough to go inside and apologize for being home so late, she got caught up talking with one of the soldiers, she’s very, very sorry, it won’t happen again.

She falls asleep with a tear in her eye and a smile on her lips.

**Author's Note:**

> Part one of at least three and at most five. Leave a comment and tell me what you think :3


End file.
